Tim Pernetti learned Wednesday his job as Rutgers AD was in trouble

It was in an early-morning call Wednesday to a confidant, less than 24 hours after the Mike Rice scandal went viral, that Tim Pernetti first sensed that his job as Rutgers athletic director was in jeopardy.

He talked then about initially wanting to fire Rice, the men’s basketball coach, in December after viewing a video of him shoving, kicking and hurling basketballs at players amid a stream of profanities and homophobic slurs at practice, and how he was talked out of it by the school’s general counsel and human resources director.

Rice, hired by Pernetti in 2010, instead was suspended three games and fined $50,000.

Pernetti insisted he kept school president Robert Barchi fully informed of the contents of the damning video — in full, graphic detail. But Barchi never saw the video until Tuesday night.

Less than 12 hours later, Pernetti had a creeping feeling of dread that his role in a scandal that would rock the school’s athletic department wasn’t playing well in Trenton.

Like that gut instinct in December, he was right.

Despite a groundswell of support from fans, athletes and boosters, Pernetti resigned as Rutgers athletic director yesterday after four productive years on the job. Even Barchi, at a news conference yesterday announcing Pernetti’s "mutual" resignation (he had 15 months left on his contract), offered a mixed message about his popular former employee, an ex-Rutgers football player.

"As we move forward here, we are going to take a hit not having a charismatic athletic director at the helm," said Barchi, who added that Rutgers hopes to appoint an interim athletic director in a few days but admitted he had no idea whether that person would come from inside or outside the university.

Pernetti’s significant accomplishments apparently weren’t enough to overcome public and political outcry. State Assembly Speaker Shelia Oliver (D-Essex), State Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Gov. Chris Christie all called for a clean sweep in the athletic department in the immediate aftermath of the Rice video aired by ESPN on Tuesday.

Pernetti, named one of five finalists for athletic director of the year by Sports Business Journal less than three weeks ago, was swept up in a housecleaning that saw Rice fired, assistant coach Jimmy Martelli resign and interim general counsel John B. Wolf step down.

Christie, while calling Pernetti’s ouster "appropriate and necessary," also thanked him for his contributions at Rutgers.

The most significant, of course, was getting the school into the Big Ten starting in 2014, a move that will be a financial windfall for an athletic program annually operating in the red. Pernetti also secured a 10-year, $6 million deal for naming rights to the football stadium, trimmed the athletic department budget by $1 million a year ago and created a significant increase in athletic fundraising.

Some of the connections Pernetti made reacted strongly yesterday when news of his resignation broke.

Daniel Wheeler, a founding member of the Society of Queens College, in which membership requires a minimum of $1 million donated over a lifetime, said he was upset the school ignored the persistent pleas of prominent donors to keep Pernetti.

"Everybody who supports Rutgers Athletics in a big way — with the exception of one person I spoke to — made it clear they wanted Pernetti to stay," said Wheeler, also a member of the school’s Board of Overseers, which governs Rutgers’ fundraising arm. "I won’t say numbers, but I’ve given over seven figures, and like a lot of people who have done the same I support Tim Pernetti. We all stood up for Tim and the school ignored us.

"How can I write Rutgers another check? I have a big one due in June. How can I write that when they completely ignored us?"

Tom Mendiburu, the co-founder of High Point Solutions, said he wanted to review his options before making a decision on the stadium naming rights deal.

"I’m not sure what we’re going to do, because our relationship was with Tim Pernetti," he said. "That’s the reason we signed this deal. We’ll have to look at things and decide. But it’s very disappointing to see this happen to Tim Pernetti."

Rutgers has already collected approximately $1.2 million from Mendiburu’s company for the naming rights. The contract runs through 2019 with an option for two more years.

A regular at football practice, Pernetti even slid himself into the role of recruiter when coach Greg Schiano abruptly left in January 2012 and helped hold together the highest-rated recruiting class in school history as he hired Kyle Flood.

"There are few men that I look up to in this world and he is one of them," left tackle Kaleb Johnson tweeted. "Much respect to Tim Pernetti."

Outside of his letter of resignation — published on the Rutgers Athletics’ website shortly before Barchi’s news conference and read by the school’s president in his opening remarks — and a quick foray onto Twitter yesterday afternoon, Pernetti’s public comments were brief outside his Bergen County home.

"It’s a really sad day for a lot of people, including me and my family," Pernetti said. "I always have and I always will, no matter what, want what’s best for Rutgers."